D.C. Baseball Update

Eric Fisher of the Washington Times has another great article on the prospects of putting a stadium in Northern Virginia to house the Montreal Expos.

The owners of the land that contains one of the proposed stadium sites, The Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation and the H Street Building Corp., have started an intense public relations campaign to let the world know they aren't interested in selling their site. Further, this effort included a poll of Arlington, Virginia county residents that found that 65 percent of them are against building a stadium.

A poll taken recently by the Virginia Baseball Stadium Authority found that 55 percent of Arlingtonians actually favored a stadium.

"We have owned this land for more than 50 years and intend to continue to own it for another 50 years, and another 50 years after that," said Jack Ritchie, H Street Building Corp. president. "There has been much speculation about the possibility that, if we do not agree to sell to the Stadium Authority, they may attempt to take our site by condemnation. It's an unfortunate situation when a long-term landowner is forced to incur substantial expense to keep the government from coming along and taking his property for what is really a private use."      Ritchie said he and the foundation would not sell "at any price."

The Simon Coda

To most of the world, she was just an Italian Sausage running down the third baseline in foul ground. But to her family, she's 19-year old Mandy Block, and she was inside the costume when Pittsburgh Pirates first baseman Randall Simon struck her with a bat sending her to the ground.

Don't worry, she's accepted Simon's apology, but rejected the Pirates peace offering of free tickets. Instead, Block will get the bat Simon used to knock her down complete with his autograph. The girl in the Polish Sausage costume, who tripped over Block, gets a bat too.

I just saw the video again, and I still can't get over the fact that while the Hot Dog stopped to see if the others who fell were ok, the Bratwurst just kept running. Priceless.

Johnson Brings Them In

The El Paso Diablos drew better than 11,000 fans to their game last night against Midland. Not your usual crowd, but then again it isn't every night that you get to see Randy Johnson make a minor league rehab start.

Unfortunately, pitching in El Paso meant that Johnson wouldn't be pitching in Nashville against the hometown Sounds. So, instead, the team brought out five locals named Randy Johnson to throw out the first pitch.

Webber Trial Date Set

The Federal criminal trial of Sacramento Kings forward Chris Webber and his father Mayce begins Tuesday in Detroit. The two are charged with lying to a Federal grand jury concerning payments made by late Michigan booster Ed Martin. One twist: a hearing will be held on Monday to determine whether or not Detroit Free Press reporter Mitch Albom will be forced to testify in the case.

Stay tuned.

The Post Olympic Tab

The folks up in Vancouver are celebrating now that they know they've been awarded the 2012 Winter Olympic Games. But what happens after the party's over?

Ask the folks in Salt Lake City, where the foundation that maintains Olympic venues say they will be running out of money in two to three years:

The Utah Athletic Foundation will be forced to spend an additional $2.5 million a year to maintain the venues for ski jumping, bobsled and luge, cross-country skiing and a speedskating oval, president and chief executive Mark Lewis told The Associated Press on Thursday.

Lewis said the venues require no special maintenance now, but wear and tear will require major financial outlays within three years. That's money the foundation doesn't have in its operating budget, he said.

Lewis laid out a few options for his board: The foundation could decide to start draining a $52 million endowment, which was supposed to remain untouched except for the interest earnings.
It could ignore the venues' maintenance needs, "but these facilities will eventually wear out," he said. Or the foundation could look for ways to cut operating expenses.

This reminds me a lot of what's happening in Atlanta, where the locals have discovered they don't have all that much use for a Velodrome, at least not until the Olympics comes back to town.

D.C. Baseball Update

When there is doubt, there is no doubt. Robert DeNiro in Ronin

In the Washington Times, Eric Fisher is reporting that Major League Baseball will not meet its self-imposed deadline of July 15th to announce whether or not the Montreal Expos will relocate in time to begin play somewhere else in time for the start of the 2004 Baseball season.

It's over. But then again, it was never really on to begin with.

The Movement That Is Moneyball

Over at Blissful Knowledge, Dr. Manhattan has a treasure trove of Moneyball-related information. Most recently, he linked to an interview Robert Birnbaum conducted with Moneyball author Michael Lewis about how the book is impacting outside of the world of sports:

The lead investment strategist for Credit Suisse/First Boston, the investment bank, devoted his whole research report a week or two ago to this book. The gist of it was if you want to know how to manage money the Oakland A's are a good example—if you want to look at allocation of resources and how you think about it.

The second post concerns a trial balloon the good doctor is floating concerning who would be the best sort of manager to match up with Oakland A's General Manager Billy Beane:

The perfect managerial match for Billy Beane would share his intellect and volatility. He would not be afraid to cause controversy in his commitment to doing what he felt was the right move (in baseball terms: to tell his detractors and the media to go f$#% themselves). And a connection to the Mets wouldn't hurt.

Bobby Valentine, would you like to move to Oakland?

Not long ago, Newsday's Sports Television writer, Steve Zipay, spent a day in Bristol at ESPN with Valentine as he prepared for a Baseball Tonight broadcast, and one of the beauties Valentine uncorked was his belief that Moneyball was "80 percent fiction." If anything, I'm not sure there's a room big enough to accomodate a pair of egos the size of Valentine's and Beane's. Both would need to work with someone who would serve as more of a foil: which is why Beane works so well now with the low key Ken Macha; and it's also why Valentine clashed so often with the high profile ex-Mets General Manager, Steve Phillips.

POSTSCRIPT: The Doc also links to the latest column from ESPN.com's Rob Neyer, who interviewed ex-Houston Astros manager Larry Dierker, and how some of the principals of Moneyball can and did cause friction between Dierker and players who thought they knew better.

Bedtime Roundup

Nike has purchased Converse for $305 million. A pair of Chuck Taylor's was the first sneakers I ever remember owning, and I favored Converse over Nike when it came to Basketball shoes through Junior High School. Then that Jordan guy decided to leave North Carolina early. . .

After the US Postal Service Team won Wednesday's time trial, Lance Armstrong is in second place overall in the Tour de France, only one second off the lead. And we're not even in the mountains yet, where Armstrong typically destroys the field year after year.

The NCAA announced some changes in their bracketing and seeding for the Men's Division I Basketball tourney. Bottom line: it doesn't change the way you fill out your brackets, so don't worry about it.

Pittsburgh Pirates first baseman Randall Simon was questioned by Milwaukee police after he struck one of the "racing sausages" with his bat between innings at a Pirates-Brewers game:

Film of Wednesday night's race showed that when the group went past the Pirates dugout, Simon swung a bat at the Italian sausage character -- portrayed by a 20-year-old South Milwaukee woman -- causing her to fall to the ground. As she fell, a nearby sausage also went down.

"They were doing the sausage race. He hit her with the baseball bat," said Deputy Inspector Sherry Warichak of the Milwaukee County Sheriff's Department, which provides security at Brewers games.
"When he hit her, that other character fell.

"They both were treated at the scene for scraped knees, but at this point I don't think they have any other complaints," she said.

Not so fast: late word from ESPN's Baseball Tonight is that Simon has been arrested on suspicion of misdemeanor battery in connection with the attack, though he has yet to be charged.

And finally, from Turkey, comes a story with a different sort of appeal:

For more than 40 grueling minutes, Hasan Tuna grabbed and tugged at his opponent's sweaty, oil-slicked body. Suddenly, he was on his back, looking up at the sun in a field of uncut grass. . .

Read the rest yourself, if you dare.

UPDATE: Charges against Simon have been dropped, but he was fined $432.

Web Design Question

I've been informed by one of my readers that Off Wing Opinion doesn't load correctly for users of Netscape. This isn't an old problem, and it's one that my Web mistress and I are at a loss to correct.

Here's the problem: to track visitors to the site, I've used Sitemeter, a relatively simple tool. As an extra bonus, it just happens to be free.

Unfortunately, the spot where I place the graphic on my page makes it awfully tough to read in Netscape -- from some of the reports I've seen, it ruins all the margins and generally makes Off Wing a pain to read.

Hence, I'd like to throw the question open to my readers, and ask for your help. Is there any solution to this at all? Is it possible I might simply be able to move the sitemeter graphic, or perhaps just choose another type? Leave comments or email me.

UPDATE: I've upgraded my Sitemeter account to one that allows me to use an invisible counter. If you're using Netscape or any other Gecko-enabled browser, let me know if things look any different. Thanks for all your suggestions.

Soccer And Dissent In Iran

If you spend any time hanging around the political sites in the Blogosphere, you know by now that a planned mass protest against the theocracy in Iran has been called off by student activists. Over the past few weeks, the government has been cracking down hard in anticipation of protests that were meant to mark the fifth anniversary of a previous clash.

Despite this, there is one area of Iranian life where the government fears to crack down too hard, and it's become a popular refuge from the excesses of the theocracy: Soccer.

Iranians love their Soccer, as the results of this Google search demonstrates. Top players like Ali Daei and Khodadad Azizi are national heroes, and at times are even allowed to publicly clash with the regime without fear of official sanction.

To understand where I'm going with this, you need to take a look back at the 1998 World Cup in France, and in particular, the first round match between the U.S. and Iran. Because the match had to be broadcast live back in Iran, numerous exile groups descended on the stadium in Lyon because it afforded them an opportunity to have their message delivered to folks back home without a filter from the regime.

Despite the perception of a rivalry here in the U.S., American fans in the stadium in Lyon had little to fear. Rather, it was the various exile groups and supporters of the regime who clashed nearly constantly throughout the match -- something local authorities had to disperse by using elite French paratroopers disguised in track suits.

But the connection between Soccer and open defiance of the regime began to accelerate during regional qualifying for the 2002 World Cup in Korea. As ex-UN official Whit Mason tells it in his World Policy Journal article entitled, "Iran’s Simmering Discontent":

Given the repression in so many other areas of life, football has long been a means of letting off steam. Tehran’s most popular football team is officially called "Paroozi" (Victorious), in honor of the Revolution. But its thousands of adoring fans still call it by its pre-revolutionary—and pre-Islamic—name, "Persepolis."

The former national team coach was fired, under pressure from both his players and fans, for insisting that the team conform to a code of conspicuous piety, including praying before games. In October [2001], pent-up frustration boiled over when perhaps 100,000 people poured into the streets, first to celebrate a pair of victories, then to protest a surprise defeat of the Iranian national team [link inserted, EMc] in a series of World Cup qualifying matches. The ensuing revelry was part street party, part spontaneous demonstration.

In well-heeled parts of Tehran, unmarried couples violated prohibitions against dancing and holding hands. In other areas, young people began chanting anti-regime slogans, particularly against Supreme Leader Khameini. Police and Revolutionary Guards dispersed these more politicized crowds with baton charges, tear gas, and beatings. About 1,000 teenagers were arrested in Tehran alone. . .

To diplomats and other observers in Tehran, the football shenanigans rumbled like the first minatory tremors along the fault line running under Iranian society.

World Cup qualifying for Germany 2006 in Oceania, the region where Iran plays, begins next year. Pay attention to the sports pages.

Midday Update

New details are trickling out concerning the circumstances around Kobe Bryant's arrest in Colorado on charges of sexual assault.

Better than 15,000 paying fans showed up in Orlando for an NBA Summer League game that served as LeBron James' professional debut.

I didn't pay too much attention to George Steinbrenner's tearful tirade after Monday's Yankees-Red Sox game that saw both Derek Jeter and Alfonso Soriano struck on the hand by pitches from Pedro Martinez. Then again, Martinez's response is just too priceless to pass up:

"Georgie Porgie, he might buy the whole league," he said, "but he doesn't have enough money to buy fear to put in my heart."

Red Sox manager Grady Little couldn't help but hear Martinez's comments as he walked down a hall outside the visiting manager's office at SkyDome.

"That's poetic," Little said.

Earlier, Little was asked for his response to Steinbrenner's comments.

"He's seen Roger Clemens pitch a lot for his team. What's he seeing there?" Little said. "Doggone it, it's just the game. That's how you play the game.

Priceless indeed.

In Oakland last night, an 8-year old fan was burned on one of his legs after some moron tossed a Cherry Bomb into the left field bleachers. Police have said moron in custody.

Win your first Men's Singles title at Wimbledon and get a cow.

Who Am I?

I broke into Baseball as an employee of in 1951. And though my role in America's great game has been immortalized in literature and newsreel footage, I left as quickly as I came, at the height of my fame.

Who am I?

Leave your answers in the comments box.

UPDATE: No answers yet? I could drop a hint, but then the question might "seam" too easy. How about this -- I made my major league debut at the Polo Grounds.

ANOTHER HINT: Perhaps I'm engaging in a bit of personification here?

WE HAVE A CORRECT ANSWER: Congrats to David Pinto of Baseball Musings who answered the ball that Bobby Thomson hit to win the National League Pennant for the Giants. Let's go through the hints:

In 1951, was the official supplier of baseballs to the Major Leagues.

Unlike many famous home run balls of today, the ball Thomson hit off of Ralph Branca was never found -- except in contemporary American fiction. The main charcter in Don Delillo's Underworld obtained the ball from the fan who had originally caught it. Though the novel itself is rather daunting, the Prologue, which recounts the one-game playoff in the Polo Grounds through the eyes of J. Edgar Hoover, Jackie Gleason, Frank Sinatra and Toots Shoor, stands on its own as one of the finest short stories I've ever read. Check it out.

CORRECTION: As Charles Kuffner points out in the comments box, the National League Pennant was determined by a three-game playoff, not the one-game system that came into use after the leagues split into East and West divisions in 1969. Thomson's home run came in Game 3 in the Polo Grounds.

Picture Of The Day

Three players, including former Hollywood star Tommy Chong, battle it out at the World Cup of Homeless Soccer in Graz, Austria.

No, that isn't Tommy Chong, but it is the World Cup of Soccer for the homeless. The team from the U.S. (made up completely of homeless New Yorkers), pictured above, thoughtfully came dressed in blue and gold, the national colors of Sweden. This of course, forced the Swedes to "pinnies" most Americans would be familiar with from high school gym class. Just more misbehavior on behalf of the hegemon.

Webber Catches A Break

Somebody just got really lucky:

Prosecutors were banned Tuesday from presenting key testimony and evidence at the perjury trial of Sacramento Kings star Chris Webber.

Prosecutors cannot use notes kept by Michigan basketball booster Eddie Martin as evidence that Webber borrowed money from him while playing in high school and college, U.S. District Judge Nancy Edmunds ruled.

Prosecutors also were prohibited from calling other players to testify about amounts they said they received from Martin.

Edmunds said she would probably not allow wiretapped phone conversations in which Martin reportedly tells an acquaintance about how much Webber owed him.

I'm not a lawyer, and I'm not going to pretend I have any experience as a prosecutor. But something tells me this turn of events is a problem for the prosecution.

Insert Lawyer Joke Here

From the cosmic justice file:

Barry Bonds' record-setting 73rd home run ball fetched $450,000 at auction -- $23,500 less than a lawyer says he's owed for representing one of the fans who claimed ownership of the historic ball.

Martin Triano of San Francisco is suing his former client, Alex Popov, for $473,500 in legal fees. Popov was the Giants fan who briefly gloved the ball before being mauled in the Pac Bell Park stands in October 2001.

The other guy worked something out with his lawyer to get a percentage of the sales price of the ball. Apparently, Popov's lawyer started the meter by the hour as soon as they started talking.

Street Cred

ESPN.com's Darren Rovell actually spends an entire column explaining why having a sexual assault arrest or conviction won't help Kobe Bryant get a bigger sneaker endorsement contract. It's all part of the idea that Bryant can't sell as many shoes to urban kids because he was raised in an upper middle class environment.

Take a moment and think on that for a second. I'll wait.

I'm not really sure what's worse: that Rovell felt that was a legitimate angle for the story, rather than exploring how even the simple allegation might destroy Bryant's viability as a product pitchman; or that he felt it was necessary to explain this possibility to the majority of ESPN.com's audience.

By the way, the link I clicked on to get to the story was slugged, "Shoe boon?"

UPDATE: Some legal experts are questioning the way local law enforcement is handling the Bryant case in Colorado.

The Tilmans Come Marching Home

Former Arizona Cardinals defensive back Pat Tilman, who turned down a multi-million dollar contract extension to join the Army and become a Ranger, and his brother Kevin, have returned from action in the Middle East to attend elite Ranger training here stateside.

Welcome back Pat and Kevin. And thank you.

Who Am I?

I won Rookie of the Year and a Cy Young. I threw a no-hitter, and led a league in strikeouts twice. I have two World Series rings, but I never won a postseason game.

Who am I?

(Answer later today).

THE ANSWER: Doc Gooden it is! He won ROY in 1984; the Cy Young in 1985; led the NL in strikeouts in both those years; won a World Series with both the Mets and Yankees; and got his only no hitter in a Yankees uniform.

I may try this again.

Rose-Fosse Redux

Rose wins game, ruins Fosse's career.

Now that Commissioner by default Bud Selig has decreed that the league that wins next week's All-Star Game will be awarded home field advantage in the World Series, the Philadelphia Inquirer's Sam Donnellon is wondering if raising the stakes is really worth the risk -- and invokes the memory of the 1970 All-Star Game and the classic collision at home plate between Pete Rose and Ray Fosse, one that may have cost Fosse a brilliant career:

But as we decide the final spots for an All-Star Game advertised as something just below a grudge match, the Fosse-Rose incident is a sobering possibility.

What if it had been Pete Rose's shoulder that gave in that collision and his swing the one that was altered? Are we OK with Randy Wolf popping a shoulder covering third base the way Roger Clemens almost did the other day against Boston when Johnny Damon came barreling into him, shoulder first, shoulder hard?

Are we willing to incur the risks? Do we really want them to play this one for keeps? Won't we watch any other way?

I don't quite know how to answer his question. All I know is that I've been against this idea from the beginning, thinking that it's just another short-term "fix" that's coming at the cost of ending another baseball tradition (alternating home field advantage between the leagues). Know this: if we see an incident anything like the Rose-Fosse collision, look for the Players Union to scream bloddy murder for the new format to be scrapped.

More Praise For Moneyball

This time from Mark Gerson in the Weekly Standard.

Baker Won't Wilt In The Heat

With one 24-hour news cycle behind him, Chicago Cubs Manager Dusty Baker is standing by his comments about Black and Latino players being better able to withstand the daytime heat in Chicago's Wrigley Field:

Baker's comments were ripe fodder for the talk shows Monday. Some charged that a white manager would be under fire if he made similar statements.

"If a white manager made those statements, there's no question he would find himself in a group that includes Al Campanis and Jimmy 'The Greek' Snyder," [1960s Civil Rights Actvist Harry] Edwards said.

Baker, one of four African-Americans among seven minority managers in the major leagues, agrees. "But as a black manager, I can say things about blacks that a white manager can't say, and whites can say things about whites that blacks can't say."

Baker said he won't address the issue any further. "People have accused me of being sensitive, but maybe they're too sensitive," he said. "I'm not elaborating on it any more. End of topic. I said what I mean."

I'm beginning to wonder if this story might have some legs. Stay tuned.

UPDATE: Matt Moore chimes in with some common sense.

It's Official: The Dominator To Return

The Red Wings have confirmed that Dominik Hasek will return to play for the team next season. Of course, this leaves Detroit with two number one goalies, Hasek, as well as Curtis Joseph, signed before last season to replace him.

UPDATE: Check out the inside scoop from the Hockey Rodent on the behind the scenes drama in Toronto.

Son Of Dictator Gets Shot At Serie A

Some tales need simply to be told, not explained:

Saadi Gadhafi was accompanied to the team owner's castle by personal bodyguards and a special unit of Italian police.

Gadhafi, according to Italian spokesman Gianluca Di Carlo, "wants to be a normal citizen like everyone else."

This may not be so easy. He is, after all, a son of Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi.

The 30-year-old captain of Libya's national team is getting ready to play in one of the world's top soccer leagues. Last month, he signed with the Italian club Perugia for next season.

Hence, Perugia joins Juventus (where Gadhafi is on the board), Lazio, and second division Trestina as the official soccer teams of the Axis of Evil.

Mets In Hock To City

How would you feel if you landlord told you that you owed him another $4.5 million?

Ask the New York Mets:

The city owns Shea Stadium, and the Mets are operating under a lease that expires Dec. 31, 2005.

The audit reported that during 2001, the Mets accumulated $1.2 million in outstanding payments to the city through a combination of overstating allowable deductions and underreporting revenue -- including $362,102 in concession and wait service revenue and $40,878 in income from luxury seats.

An earlier audit by Thompson, released in January, found the club owed the city $3.3 million for various costs -- including underreported stadium advertising and overstated revenue-sharing deductions.

The total from the two audits comes to about $4.5 million.

"Given the city's dire financial condition, it is critical that the Mets live up to their fiscal responsibilities and pay the more than $4.5 million due," Thompson said in a statement. "I'm disappointed that the Mets have ignored their obligations under their lease."

Of course, there's another story here besides New York City's dire fiscal straights -- it's the way Mayor Michael Bloomberg has decided to balance the budget. Essentially, City officials are looking for any stray dollars that aren't nailed down, something that has led the Mayor to enlist the police force to write tickets for violations of city ordinances that haven't been enforced in decades. The result: lots of new short-term revenue, but just as much long-term damage to the pro-business climate created by former Mayor Rudy Giuliani.

UPDATE: Jeff Cooper takes aim at the Mets Armando Benitez, and finds the "All-Star" pitcher to be wanting.

Caray And Van Wieren Called Back By TBS

In the midst of Spring Training earlier this year, TBS announced that Skip Caray and Pete Van Wieren would no longer be part of the broadcast team on Atlanta Braves baseball. Instead, the two would work a mere 36 games to be televised on Turner South, a much smaller regional cable provider. At the time, I was pretty livid, as Caray and Van Wiern are the voices I associate with the rise to national prominence of Atlanta Braves baseball. Shoving them aside would be like getting rid of Phil Rizzuto or Ralph Kiner in New York.

Well yesterday, TBS annouced that the pair will be back on July 17th to share broadcasting duties with Don Sutton and Joe Simpson, just as they had before this season. Bravo to TBS for finally coming around to the right decision.

Super Bowl or Super Blow Out?

Over at the Philadelphia Inquirer, Stephen Smith is suffering from selective amnesia. In Women's Tennis, Smith is getting a little tired of watching Serena Williams crush her big sister, Venus, in Grand Slam Final after Grand Slam Final, which leads him to say:

For some sports fans, such a disparity between two top players can be depressing, since it doesn't leave much to look forward to. For most of us, it's nothing more than the lopsided nonsense we've witnessed from coast to coast for far too long.

Except in the NFL.

The Super Bowl isn't super just because it's the biggest event of the year. It's great because the outcome usually isn't a foregone conclusion. Green Bay losing to Denver. The Titans vs. the Rams. The Patriots upsetting the Rams. A hard salary cap, coupled with a plethora of intangibles, enables everyone from St. Louis to San Diego to Buffalo to enter each season believing they truly have a chance to capture a ring.

Similar scenarios don't occur elsewhere.

To which I say, where the heck was Smith between 1985 and 1997, when the NFC won 13 straight Super Bowls? Back during those days, which aren't exactly that long ago, there were even some folks that were calling for scrapping the two conferences, and re-seeding the Super Bowl tournament just before the big game. How many times did we hear that the NFC Championship was the "real" Super Bowl? Back then, the road to the championship ran through San Francisco, Washington, Dallas, New York (the Meadowlands) and Green Bay.

As for the Super Bowls Smith cites as evidence, they prove to be the exceptions, not the rule. Going through the list of all 37 Super Bowls, I count only 10 that have been close, or exciting from start to finish (III, V, X, XIII, XVI, XXIII, XXV, XXXII, XXXIV, and XXXVI), and even that's a stretch, as the Jets were essentially in control of Super Bowl III from start to finish.

Granted, I'm happy to see that in the recent past, the Super Bowl seems to have gotten more competitive. But even a relative youngster like myself can see that's only been a recent phenomenon.

Can you tell we're less than two months from kickoff on the 2003 NFL season?

Last Roundup For Lobo

At the moment the WNBA was founded, Rebecca Lobo, seemingly by providence playing for the New York Liberty, emerged as one of the young stars of the league. And why not? Based on her play at UConn, big things were expected of Lobo.

But it wasn't meant to be. Plagued by injuries for most of her professional career, Lobo left New York for Houston, and is now back in Connecticut playing out the string for the hometown Sun. Mike Dimauro writes:

Lobo's prominence, diminished by chronically creaky knees and more recent declining minutes, has only reinforced her connection to The Mick, whose majesty for a generation of baseball fans mirrors what Lobo has done for Connecticut's burgeoning love affair with the women's game.

Rebecca Lobo, 2003, is Mickey Mantle, circa 1966, when nature and circumstances cruelly conspired to leave his fans yearning for the old days, for just one more at bat when he was larger than life again, one more at bat by which they could remember again, one more at bat when he was The Mick.

And while great ones have since followed him — Reggie (Taurasi), Bernie (Sales), Mattingly (Svetlana), Jeter (Sue Bird) and O'Neill (Shea Ralph) — there will always be only one Mick.

There will always be only one Rebecca.

I understand what Dimauro is trying to do here by comparing the greats in UConn Women's hoops to the greatest Yankees of all time, but something about it seems just a little off to me. For the most part, Women's hoops is still in relative infancy compared to Men's NCAA Basketball and the NBA. Hence, I like to think about the women who are dominating the sport today in the same terms as others think of the giants of the golden age of sport. So whenever I think of Pat Summit, I think of her as more akin to George Halas or John McGraw. In turn, the players probably have more in common with Babe Ruth, Lou Gherig and Bronco Nagurski than any Men's athletes of recent memory.

They won't just be remembered as the greats of the game, but as its builders as well. And that's how it should be.

Chalk up an assist to Women's Hoops.

Ice Brew League Update

After a flurry of activity that saw Kariya, Selanne, Hatcher, and Drury change uniforms, NHL movement came to a crashing halt just before the July 4th holiday. As always, Steve Ovadia has a good roundup, including taking a shot at Mike Milbury and the New York Islanders that is richly deserved.

Over at On The Wings, Matt is praying Detroit makes one last run to bring back Sergei Fedorov. But up in Rangerland, the Hockey Rodent (soon to be welcomed to the Blog Roll), wonders if Fedorov is more trouble than he's worth, among other things -- including how questions about Pavel Bure's possible retirement is slowing moves down league-wide.

Finally, Jordon Cooper at The Hockey Pundits is looking for some advice on series 2000 hockey cards. He's looking to buy something special for his son, born that year. Stop by if you can help him out.

Parsing Dusty Baker

In case you might have missed it, here are the comments from Chicago Cubs manager Dusty Baker that are kicking up so much dust on sports talk radio today. On Saturday afternoon, Baker was asked how his team would cope with the higher number of games they have to play in the heat and Sun in the Summertime at Wrigley Field:

"The heat is nothing new to me, I'm from Sacramento. ... Personally, I like to play in the heat."

Then, with a laugh, Baker kept talking about the weather and how it affected players.

"It's easier for most Latin guys and it's easier for most minority people because most of us come from heat. You don't find too many brothers in New Hampshire and Maine. Right?

"We were brought over here for the heat. Isn't that history?" Baker said.

"Your skin color is more conducive to heat than it is to the lighter-skinned people. I don't see brothers running around burnt," he said. "That's a fact. I'm not making this up. I'm not seeing some brothers walking around with some white stuff on their ears and noses."

Now, there was a time when comments like these could end the career of those who uttered them. Like when Al Campanis said African-Americans lacked the necessary tools to succeed in front office jobs in baseball. Or when Jimmy "The Greek" Snyder saw his career end in an afternoon after some ill-considered remarks about the way slaves were bred.

Down at the Dallas Morning News, Kevin Blackistone, himself African-American, doesn't want to give Baker a free pass:

Now, I'd like to just chuckle along with Baker, too. In fact, had he said the same thing to me in the privacy of a corner booth in some watering hole, I probably would have just chuckled at his commentary and shook my head.

But he said what he did to the media. Outlets around the country, including The Dallas Morning News, picked it up, and it was incorrect. It stood only to fuel a misnomer that has led to a stereotype.

Later, Blackistone launches into a series of grafs loaded with facts about how African-Americans are just as susceptible to heat stroke and skin cancer, and perhaps more, than the general population. That's fine as far as it goes, but to be quite frank, I'm prone to give Baker a pass on this one.

What we have here is what's commonly known as a gaffe. Baker should be allowed to apologize and move on -- something Campanis (whose record as a player and a scout marked him as anything but a bigot) should have been allowed to do after his infamous appearance on Nightline so many years ago.

UPDATE: David Pinto is calling for a suspension, and possibly preventing Baker from managing in the All-Star Game in Chicago this week.

ANOTHER UPDATE: David Pinto responds to my appeal to let Baker slide on this. From where he sits, if Campanis, Marge Schott and John Rocker all got slapped down simply for voicing unpopular opinions, then Baker ought to be as well:

But MLB does punish this type of speech. And since they do, they should punish Baker, or announce that they have a double standard. I would love to see Selig come out and say that the three offenders above were treated unfairly, and the commissioner's office would no longer take action against speech. But until then, Dusty needs to be suspended, just like the rest of the bigots who shot off their mouths.

(Yes, I'm talking about two wrongs making a right. This is one of the few cases where I think it applies.)

To which I respond, when will the madness end? If you defend free speech on the basis of principle, then occasionally that means having to defend the rights of those who you disagree with. At other times, it means simply defending the right of another to act like a jerk. And in some cases, it means acting with a little grace, and letting someone who made a mistake (small or large) escape with some dignity.

After all, what we're talking about here is an off-color joke that went one sentence too far. Now, if anyone seriously believes that Baker is benching White players in the Summer heat, and then planning to get them back into the lineup if the Cubs somehow make it to the postseason, please stand up.

In the end, we're skirting into some dangerous territory here. Remember, it wasn't long ago that the Boston Globe suspended columnist Bob Ryan for a month for simply saying he wanted to smack Joumanna Kidd. Meanwhile, Jason Kidd, who actually did smack his wife, didn't miss a day of work due to any suspension from his employer.

I hate to disagree with David, but if we're looking to set a new course in the terms of public debate, I'm afraid hanging Baker's head on a wall like a trophy isn't the way to go.

FINAL UPDATE: Dan Lewis reminds us that there really isn't any such thing as free speech for employees of Major League Baseball.

Even More On Moneyball

If you're looking for more detail on Michael Lewis' Moneyball, scoot on over to Peter White's Mariners Musings. First, he's got a transcript of an interview with Lewis that was conducted by Will Carroll of Baseball Prospectus. Next, running down the right hand margin of the page he's got an extensive listing of reviews and columns about the book from all over the country -- a great resource for following the trajectory of a book that's had the most impact on the game of Baseball since the publication of Ball Four. Check it out.

The Baseball All-Stars

Even though this year's All-Star Game counts, on account of another dopey decision from Commissioner by default, Bud Selig, I can't work up much interest in who's been left off this year's teams. Luckily for you, Jason Scavone has.

Pollin Bashing, Part Deux

Part two of the Washington Post's two-day series on Washington Wizards owner Abe Pollin appears this morning, and the overall conclusions are rather ho-hum: that Pollin, while the sweetest guy you would ever want to meet, simply hasn't been able to keep up with the pace of change in today's NBA, and the organization that he runs reflects that fact.

The result: decades of failure, that may have tarred the franchise with the loser tag forever.

To which I say: no kidding! Other than some interesting anecdotes from angry former players, there's not much here that any local Washington sports fan couldn't have told you themselves. In essence, this story has been on the street for years among fans of both the Bullets/Wizards and the Capitals for some time now.

Although, some of those anecdotes are pretty priceless. Such as the story about the Bullets former practice facility at Bowie State University:

"The bottom of the food chain," said former Bullet Jim McIlvaine.

"A dump," [former Bullet Brent] Price said.

"Disgusting," said former Bullet and Wizard Tim Legler.

"A bad place," said former Bullet Rex Chapman. . .

The worst part, players said, was a locker room in which 14 players had to share four showerheads, then three, then finally one working showerhead and its squeaky handle. The drainage was so poor that the water from the shower would fill up around the players' ankles. Because of the shortage of showers, players operated on a seniority system. In the 1987-88 season, for instance, [center Moses] Malone would shower first, forcing the others to wait up to 20 minutes for a chance to clean up.

The problem was solved when the Bullets moved into MCI Center during the 1997-98 NBA season. Then again, there's the story of how the team forced players to pay $10 per week to have their practice uniforms laundered, and how some veterans would wash their game uniforms in hotel sinks and spread them out on radiators in hope they would be dry in time for games on the road.

But despite the fact that much has improved since the opening of MCI Center, the crew running the show has remained the same over the years, with the exception of the recently exiled Michael Jordan. In fact, in a number of cases, improvement in the ways players were treated by the organization were instituted by Jordan without Pollin being consulted.

One of the common complaints of Wizards fans over the years has concerned the role of team president Susan O'Malley, a longtime Pollin associate. A number of folks in sports media around town have suspected that O'Malley, who at times has seemed like a marketing genius in finding ways to fill an arena that housed a horrible team, played an outsize role in personnel decisions. But other than a short story that mentions O'Malley's role in not re-siging center Moses Malone, the series doesn't really dig too deeply into her role with the team.

Also unanswered over the two part series, is the state of Pollin's relationship with his Washington Sports partner and Capitals owner, Ted Leonsis. Ever since Jordan's dismissal at the beginning of May, Leonsis has gone to ground, and the normally high profile owner hasn't had much to say. This, after a Spring where he publicly complained about how he and his partners in the ownership of the Captials were being constantly mistreated by Pollin.

In the end, the Post gives the last word to ex-Bullet Jim McIlvaine:

"[Washington] probably needs some fresh people in there and a new approach," McIlvaine said. "Maybe Abe needs to hand over the keys to somebody else and get a different perspective on it. You have to do something after losing that much for that long."

It's hard to argue with his assesment. If anything, Pollin reminds me a lot of late New York Jets owner Leon Hess. Like Pollin, Hess was intensely loyal to a group of folks who didn't always come through for him. And like Pollin, Hess is remembered for effusively praising a coaching hire who would eventually lead the team to disaster (Gar Heard for Pollin, Rich Kotite for Hess).

Then again, it was Hess that made the hire that may have turned the Jets around forever, when he hired Bill Parcells to run the Jets on the field and in the front office before the 1997 NFL season. Though Parcells is long gone and now coaching in Dallas, his effect on the franchise's direction was pretty dramatic.

In the six seasons after Parcells hiring, the Jets have gone 57-39 with three playoff appearances and two division titles. Unfortunately, Hess died before he was able to see the fruits of his team's resurgence.

To read my comments and wrap-up of Part I of the Post's series, click here.

Kobe Bryant Charged In Sexual Assault

Multiple reports are saying LA Lakers guard Kobe Bryant has been arrested on a sexual misconduct charge in Colorado:

In a statement Sunday, authorities said the warrant was issued after deputies investigated a report made Wednesday claiming sexual misconduct by Bryant. The report said the incident happened in a hotel in the Edwards area of Eagle County that night. After a series of interviews and a review of the physical evidence, investigators met with representatives for District Attorney Mark Hurlbert and concluded they had enough evidence for the felony sexual assault count, the statement said.

Edwards is just down the road from the resort area of Vail, if you were wondering what in the world Bryant might have been doing in the middle of Colorado in July. All reports say that Bryant cooperated fully with police. The Lakers have issued a statement expressing shock at the charges, something I'm sure most people share.

UPDATE: ESPN is reporting that Bryant was in Edwards to get a second opinion on a shoulder injury. The physician Bryant was consulting is based in Vail.

On Tiger's Campaign

As many of my regular readers know, I've been all over Tiger Woods lately concerning his very public campaign against "illegal drivers." To say the least, I'm concerned that Woods' statements are driven at least in part due to his reported $100 million endorsement deal with Nike, and that most reporters covering the issue are simply taking Woods' statements at face value.

For all I know, Woods might be exactly right. What concerns me is that few seem willing to examine his claims with the sort of scrutiny they deserve. This morning, the New York Daily News' Mike Lupica finally picked up on what I'd been talking about:

But what Tiger is doing right now often sounds way too much like a witch hunt, led by the best golfer and a huge company with its own agenda, one that has everything to do with the good of Nike and nothing at all to do with the good of golf. Tiger's got a driver he took out of his bag once in one of his U.S. Open rounds. That's supposed to be everybody else's fault.

Jack Nicklaus was a much more gracious loser than this. Wood is too great a player to sound like this big a baby, and this much of a phony.

One reader of mine who I feel the need to pay attention to when it comes to the issues in the game of Golf, Peggy, begs to differ:

I think he (Woods), like many many fans of golf, is very concerned about the negative impact technology is having on the game (my goodness, there is now even talk of taking Pebble Beach out of the US Open rotation because it is so "short"). Tiger declines to opine on controversial subjects that he deems out of his area of expertise (i.e., on the S.C. confederate flag of issue). I think we can all agree that golf is his area of expertise, and he must feel very strongly about his position to be willing to get the media in an uproar about it. As Notah Begay recently observed: "You hit one or one-and-a-half clubs less to a par 3 than the guy you're playing with. Then on the next par 4 he drives it 10 yards past you. Something's not right."

I take Peggy's point, but I can't help but keep hearing alarm bells every time Woods opens his mouth -- alarm bells that keep warning me that even a personage of Woods' stature in golf shouldn't be taken on the value of his word alone. Even in Peggy's note above, I can't help but notice that Woods' claims are backed up by Begay, an old friend and one of his former teammates at Stanford.

Remember, it was Ronald Reagan who said: "Trust, but verify." I think Woods' claims deserve no less strenuous a test.

Correcting The Record

On Friday, I linked to a story concerning a confrontation between 13-year old Michelle Wie and tour veteran Danielle Ammaccapane. Turns out it was all wrong, and Wie's father B.J., is to blame.

Here's the Washington Post's Tony Kornheiser on the mess, and how B.J. can help avoid it in the future:

But right now Wie looks like the goods. So we can only hold our breath about what effect her father, B.J., might have. B.J. is Michelle's caddie, and the other day, according to an AP story, B.J. claimed that LPGA veteran Danielle Ammaccapane, who played with Michelle in Thursday's first round of the U.S. Women's Open, "bumped, pushed or brushed" Wie on the 14th green after Wie walked in Ammaccapane's line as she prepared to putt. Michelle Wie said Ammaccapane had words with her in the scorer's tent after the round -- words B.J. Wie called "nasty," though he wasn't in the tent.

One day later B.J. retracted all charges, saying: "Michelle just told me her description of the incident was incorrect. There was no pushing or physical contact." It's good that B.J. corrected the record. And here is some free advice so such situations can be avoided in the future: Hire a caddie, B.J. (Don't make me use the word "foreshadowing" in the next sentence. Oh, and buy the original cast album of "Gypsy," and pay close attention to the Mama Rose part.) There is a word for parents who try to micromanage and manipulate their children's careers. The word is: "Get out." Silly me, that's two words.

Ouch! I wonder if B.J. will get the message.

UPDATE: Looks like B.J. got the message.

The Post Takes On Pollin

This morning, a team of Washington Post reporters is tacking the legacy of Washington Wizards owner Abe Pollin. Of course, nobody outside of Washington, D.C. would really care who Pollin was if he hadn't been the owner that said no to Michael Jordan. And even then, he's not in an exclusive blub anymore (just ask Milwaukee Bucks owner and U.S. Senator, Herb Kohl).

Do I need to mention Pollin wasn't interviewed for the piece?

Today's installment is the first part of two parts, essentially outlining what everyone in town already knows about the Washington Sports and Entertainment owner: he's an unfailingly loyal boss determined to run the NBA's Washington Wizards his way no matter what the crtics say.

I think it's safe to say that the Washington Times' Bob Cohn unearthed much the same story a few weeks ago, and he managed to produce that by himself, as opposed to the team of three reporters and a reseacher that the Post devoted to this effort.

Some new information that hadn't previously come to light:

On several occasions, Pollin has reneged on deals to sell his sports properties, engendering much bitterness.

Recently, when Pollin attempted to find a publisher for his autobiography, there were no takers. The rub: his life wasn't nearly exciting enough, mostly owning to the fact that his teams failed more often than not.

And then there's this gem of a story about how and why the Wizards made travel arrangements when travelling to Portland, Oregon:

For three decades the Bullets and then the Wizards stayed at the Sheraton Portland Airport Hotel owned by Pollin's younger brother, Harold, when they played the Portland Trail Blazers. While there, the team also used to eat at a Tony Roma's restaurant -- also owned by Harold Pollin. And they kept going back to the hotel even though players complained about its quality and noise from the airport.

"Guys were pretty upset" staying at the hotel, recalls Tim Legler, a former Bullet and Wizard. "I remember bright lights coming in my room and lighting my room up. I thought it was aliens coming there, like 'Close Encounters of the Third Kind.' "

But when Jordan joined the team, he used his own credit card to book rooms and move the Wizards to a more upscale, centrally located hotel. "My brother was disappointed," Harold Pollin said, "because he knew it was a pleasure for me" to host the team for many years. "I mentioned it to him, and he expressed his disappointment."

This is the same Tim Legler who found out he'd been traded by the Wizards from a television report while he was on a team sponsored cruise. Looks like the ESPN analyst will always be good for an anti-Wizards quote, the same way ABC's Tom Tolbert never has to be coaxed when it comes to bashing the Los Angeles Clippers.

Part II of the series, entitled, "The franchise unravels," comes tomorrow. I can't wait.